POS terminals (also known as a checkout terminal and can be either self-service or assisted), such as those used in the retail food industry are well known for their capability to identify labeled items presented for purchase at the terminal. Bar code and RFID readers are some of the devices used by the POS terminal to read labels or RFID tags attached to the items and thus identify each item being purchased. Manufactured items typically are easy to label or tag using automated methods that add only marginal incremental cost to the item.
Produce items present a number of issues that increase the cost associated with labeling each item. Produce items are generally products of nature and as such vary in size, shape and in some cases are easily damaged if improperly handled. These and other attributes of produce make it difficult to design equipment that will automatically label the produce items. As a result, produce items may not be labeled or the application of labels results in more than a marginal increase in the cost of the items.
When a produce item that is not labeled is presented for purchase, typically the person operating the POS terminal must identify the item and communicate the identity to the POS terminal or enter the actually price into the POS terminal. This increases the time required to complete the checkout process and increases the potential for pricing errors and misidentified.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a POS terminal that improves the speed and accuracy of identifying unlabeled produce items presented for purchase.